Director, New Product Introduction
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Led business strategy, internal/external strategic partnerships, testing and analytics, financial planning, sales and distribution, and logistics to bring product innovations to market.• Launched 170 new products with 200+ patents to generate over $550M in incremental revenue. Led innovation strategy, product development and go-to-market strategies for corporate business units to drive sales and revenue. Worked with business leaders to:o Conceptualize: synthesize and align business requirements, perform market/consumer/product research, and lead ideation sessions to generate new product concepts or rebrand/revitalize existing products.o Create: collaborate with Creative, Product Developers, Sales and Operations on design and (or) content development. Managed development budgets, schedules, quality and strategic priorities. o Commercialize: develop the financials, pricing, sales channel, forecasting, supply chain, merchandising, marketing, and all implementation logistics to bring a new product to market. Post implementation, monitored replenishment, scrap, and profitability. • Developed corporate growth opportunities by expanding and refining American Greetings’ value beyond ‘social expressions’ retail goods to generate new revenue streams via innovative, breakthrough products and partnerships. Created new business models, revenue sharing frameworks, identified new customers and sales channels, generated production/financial projections and oversaw strategic partner negotiations from early discussions through signed contracts.• Created a new department, New Product Concepts, in partnership with the Vice President of Innovation